I agree AE's bat is killing us and so is Ausmus. I think Ausmus has thrown out one maybe two players this year. The problem is that too many fans get stuck to nice guys players like AE and Ausmus. We keep Ausmus because the girls like him and he brings in fans and AE is just a nice guy and great fielder but he has no bat. I'm tired of having those two at the bottom of the lineup with almost the same BA as the pitchers. After your 5th batter the averages just go way down. Ausmus has won some gold gloves and had some great yrs and AE is a great fielder but you have to always play the percentages in baseball and just look at AE's and Ausmus BA and that tells the whole story. You put two bats in there with a higher batting average and you get more runs which leads to more wins. Percentage wise what do you need more a better hitter or fielder...simple, a better hitter. Most Fielders make routine plays about 90% of the time its that 10% of the time that you see that remarkable play in the field. We have seen about 50 in the last 4 games against us...Take this for what it is but I say you put Munson in there more and put Greene at short. We have to make Lamb an everyday player because he is just one hell of a hitter. Think about next yr he is going to have some big offers and we will probably be saying Bye,Bye, to him if we don't start playing him everyday when another team will.....
Translation: I choose not to respond to your question because the answer would be embarassing. Why don't you just man up and answer the question? Back up your claims of intelligence. They win because they spend alot more money than any other team. They usually have marquee players at most positions, and a deep pitching staff. Nobody is saying that a team cannot win with a poor defensive shortstop. What is being said, however, is that having an excellent defensive shortstop is a positive thing, regardless of his offensive production. Poor argument. Is having the greatest defensive shortstop in baseball a necessity for winning? No. Does having the greatest defensive shortstop in baseball give value that contributes to winning? Absolutely. Are you really this dense? You could just as easily say "does having the best offensive ss in the league translate into winning? it matters not one damn bit. simply run down the list of world series winners, blah blah." Provide evidence that I "worship the ground" Beane walks on. I think he's an excellent GM... do you disagree with that? Beane is limited by money. He had Tejada on the team when he was on his rookie deal, same with Crosby. No reason to make a change there when you have premier offensive talents being paid next to nothing. You can't look at these things in a vaccum. Also, it's news to me that Tejada is "pure" offense. And all you do is paint this picture of yourself as some kind of a baseball genius. Unfortunately, the illusion breaks down as soon as you try to explain your ideas, which for lack of a kinder term, are completely inane. You lack even a rudimentary understanding of basic logic, and your behavior in this forum is uncouth at best. You've managed to rub pretty much every poster in this forum the wrong way, even those that might agree with some of your ideas. In other words, check yourself before you wreck yourself. Or I wreck you. Again.
How did Everett get invovled in a thread about Ensberg being possibly shopped?! 2nd verse, same as the 1st. This has became a dumping ground for broken records. How bout we go straight to those in charge. There should be a poll among managers on who they'd prefer among two and only two choices: a great defesnive shortstop with limited offensive ability or a great bat but a liability at shortstop. Me, considering all the other positions that can generate offense, I'd be more inclined to have a defensive beast manning short than another bat. The plays Everett makes are just sick. And the fact that he's still an everday player at short and doesn't ever seem to be rumoured in a trade seems to indicate the organization (the people whose opinions and thoughts matter most) feels the same. Plus the team went to the WS with him there; that's good enough for me. Find your offense somewhere else. Oh yeah, they did, in acquiring Huff. And if defense is so overrated Lamb would have been playing at 3rd base a long time ago.
I don't disagree but I thought you were implying that those guys were in their for their defense when asking were they in there for their offense. I'm just saying that a defensive shortstop isn't important as it was when ozzie started out. and there were no alex rodriguez's and miguel tejadas either. I agree that the astros would move everett if they could. and I really don't care either way, I just can't stand this argument that they "need" his defense.
so, so sad. as usual, you result to insults rather than making a single point because you are completely stumped. honestly, do you realize that you didnt make a single point in this entire response? the astros have the third highest payroll in the league. miguel tejada was an A for 8 years. one of those rare 8-year rookie deals i guess! and wait a minute, child. YOU are the moron who believes that everett's defense is invaluable to the point where it doesnt matter if he ever learned how to hit a baseball. let's not turn the tables around here, ok son? you go search through your stacks and stacks of statistical analysis and show some evidence of how having the greatest defensive ss ever contributes to our winning ball games. the astros offense is atrocious. that is where our problem lies. even somebody as uneducated as you has to understand that, don't they? replacing everett with somebody who knows how to hit a baseball would help our offense. period. go home. your opinions are mindless and worthless. have fun coming back with another slew of insults! that's what children do.
The both of you are acting like a couple of snotty brats. And rocketfat, while I may agree with your points, your tone is way off. You need to check that trash at the gate. This is not the GARM.
honestly, right or wrong, he and ausmus and their lack of offensive production are joined at the hip - guilt by association. AE alone doesn't kill you; AE and ausmus combined with the pitcher kills you. well, hurts you. it kills rallys; it fails to start rallys... when 1-6 is suspect to begin with...
i think i'd focus my attention on 1-6. real differences in terms of numbers aren't gonna come by replacing your 7-8-9 hitters.
I don't know about that. I would like to see the "numbers" when the Stros get production out of the bottom of the order. My guess is that it probably accounts for a bigger impact than you would believe. It is 1/3 of the line-up.
here's my point. let's say everett's batting in the 8 hole. batting around .245. what is the average 8 hole hitter hitting at right now in the league? .270??? that's just a guess, but i don't know. look at our guys at the top and in the meat of the lineup. you're giving up a lot more at the top of the order than you're giving up in the bottom of the order. you're not getting a ton of power production at out of anyone not named berkman in the meat of the order. and yet all the attention is on ausmus and everett? that just seems silly to me.
I agree, earlier I was trying to make a point that when the astros are winning his defense is a luxury and when they are losing his offense is a liability. they may not need to get rid of him, but you can't have him and ausmus, and even willy and using the same excuse for all three when in combination they're killing you.
But what's the alternative? Sure, we'd all love Tejada or A-Rod or Jeter, but I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon. There's an alternative for Willy and they've been using it. I would like to see them use Munson more, honestly. Everett should be the last guy out of those three that people are b****ing about. Winning or losing.
Their failures are magnified by the failures of several other players more integral to the offense. Not sure what their options will be, but I'd like - and I'm sure the Stros will look at - their bringing in a catcher this offseason - let Ausmus be the backup/personal catcher for PitcherX/quasi-pitching coach.
if you look at the team when ausmus is hitting, it's a much better team; even better when they're both hitting (see last saturday). ausmus hit .339 in april; the team went 16-8. he raised his average more than 30 points after the all-star break in 2005 and 29 points in 2004 and we all know what happened during those two stretches. was he the sole reason for our resurgence? of course not. but he played a vital role. so to say the 7-9 hitters are afterthoughts and that we should be focusing on 1-6 is like saying we should only focus on starting pitchers and not the bullpen. yes, 1-6 need to step it up, but so, too, independent of 1-6, do 7-9. ausmus has 112 ABs with men on; 65 with runners in scoring position. compare that to ensberg, hitting almost exclusively 3, 4 or 5, and he has 126 ABs with runners on; 73 with runners in scoring position.
